Posted on 09/07/2013 2:27:28 PM PDT by NYer
People attend a prayer calling for peace in Syria leaded by Pope Francis in Saint Peter's square at the Vatican September 7, 2013. Pope Francis has invited people of all faiths to join a day of fasting and prayer to call for an end to the conflict in Syria on Saturday. REUTERS/Tony Gentile
The Square was crowded with people since the morning; among them there were many who wished to confess, from 5.45 onwards, to one of the fifty priests in the Constantine Wing and below the colonnade; Francis wanted confessors to be present on this day as “true peace is born of the human heart reconciled with God and with one's brothers”. At 18.30, the words uttered by the Pope last Sunday were repeated as an introduction to the Vigil which began at 7 p.m. with a greeting from the Pope and the singing of the “Veni Creator”, followed by the enthroning of the image of the Virgin as “Salus Populi Romani”, carried by four Swiss Guards.
The Pope began by praying the Rosary; each mystery was accompanied by the reading of a poem by St. Therese of Lisieux about the child Jesus, and at the end he invoked Maria: “Queen of Peace, pray for us”. He then pronounced the following homily:
'And God saw that it was good'. The biblical account of the beginning of the history of the world and of humanity speaks to us of a God who looks at creation, in a sense contemplating it, and declares: 'it is good'. This, dear brothers and sisters, allows us to enter into God’s heart and, precisely from within him, to receive his message. We can ask ourselves: what does this message mean? What does it say to me, to you, to all of us?
It says to us simply that this, our world, in the heart and mind of God, is the 'house of harmony and peace', and that it is the space in which everyone is able to find their proper place and feel 'at home', because it is 'good'. All of creation forms a harmonious and good unity, but above all humanity, made in the image and likeness of God, is one family, in which relationships are marked by a true fraternity not only in words: the other person is a brother or sister to love, and our relationship with God, who is love, fidelity and goodness, mirrors every human relationship and brings harmony to the whole of creation. God’s world is a world where everyone feels responsible for the other, for the good of the other. This evening, in reflection, fasting and prayer, each of us deep down should ask ourselves: Is this really the world that I desire? Is this really the world that we all carry in our hearts? Is the world that we want really a world of harmony and peace, in ourselves, in our relations with others, in families, in cities, in and between nations? And does not true freedom mean choosing ways in this world that lead to the good of all and are guided by love?
But then we wonder: Is this the world in which we are living? Creation retains its beauty which fills us with awe and it remains a good work. But there is also 'violence, division, disagreement, war'. This occurs when man, the summit of creation, stops contemplating beauty and goodness, and withdraws into his own selfishness.
When man thinks only of himself, of his own interests and places himself in the centre, when he permits himself to be captivated by the idols of dominion and power, when he puts himself in God’s place, then all relationships are broken and everything is ruined; then the door opens to violence, indifference, and conflict. This is precisely what the passage in the Book of Genesis seeks to teach us in the story of the Fall: man enters into conflict with himself, he realizes that he is naked and he hides himself because he is afraid, he is afraid of God’s glance; he accuses the woman, she who is flesh of his flesh; he breaks harmony with creation, he begins to raise his hand against his brother to kill him. Can we say that from harmony he passes to 'disharmony'? Can we say this: that from harmony he passes to 'disharmony'? No, there is no such thing as 'disharmony'; there is either harmony or we fall into chaos, where there is violence, argument, conflict, fear.
It is exactly in this chaos that God asks man’s conscience: “Where is Abel your brother?” and Cain responds: 'I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?'. We too are asked this question, it would be good for us to ask ourselves as well: Am I really my brother’s keeper? Yes, you are your brother’s keeper! To be human means to care for one another! But when harmony is broken, a metamorphosis occurs: the brother who is to be cared for and loved becomes an adversary to fight, to kill. What violence occurs at that moment, how many conflicts, how many wars have marked our history! We need only look at the suffering of so many brothers and sisters. This is not a question of coincidence, but the truth: we bring about the rebirth of Cain in every act of violence and in every war. All of us! And even today we continue this history of conflict between brothers, even today we raise our hands against our brother. Even today, we let ourselves be guided by idols, by selfishness, by our own interests, and this attitude persists. We have perfected our weapons, our conscience has fallen asleep, and we have sharpened our ideas to justify ourselves. As if it were normal, we continue to sow destruction, pain, death! Violence and war lead only to death, they speak of death! Violence and war are the language of death!
After the chaos of the Flood, when it stopped raining, a rainbow appeared and the dove returned with an olive branch. I think also of the olive tree which representatives of various religions planted in Plaza de Mayo, in Buenos Aires, in 2000, asking that there be no more chaos, asking that there be no more war, asking for peace.
And at this point I ask myself: Is it possible to walk the path of pace? Can we get out of this spiral of sorrow and death? Can we learn once again to walk and live in the ways of peace? Invoking the help of God, under the maternal gaze of the Salus Populi Romani, Queen of Peace, I say: Yes, it is possible for everyone! From every corner of the world tonight, I would like to hear us cry out: Yes, it is possible for everyone! Or even better, I would like for each one of us, from the least to the greatest, including those called to govern nations, to respond: Yes, we want it! My Christian faith urges me to look to the Cross. How I wish that all men and women of good will would look to the Cross if only for a moment! There, we can see God’s reply: violence is not answered with violence, death is not answered with the language of death. In the silence of the Cross, the uproar of weapons ceases and the language of reconciliation, forgiveness, dialogue, and peace is spoken. This evening, I ask the Lord that we Christians, and our brothers and sisters of other religions, and every man and woman of good will, cry out forcefully: violence and war are never the way to peace! Let everyone be moved to look into the depths of his or her conscience and listen to that word which says: Leave behind the self-interest that hardens your heart, overcome the indifference that makes your heart insensitive towards others, conquer your deadly reasoning, and open yourself to dialogue and reconciliation. Look upon your brother’s sorrow – I think of the children, look upon these - look upon your brother's sorrow, and do not add to it, stay your hand, rebuild the harmony that has been shattered; and all this not by conflict but by encounter! May the noise of weapons cease! War always marks the failure of peace, it is always a defeat for humanity. Let the words of Pope Paul VI resound again: 'No more one against the other, no more, never! ... war never again, never again war!'. 'Peace expresses itself only in peace, a peace which is not separate from the demands of justice but which is fostered by personal sacrifice, clemency, mercy and love'. Forgiveness, dialogue, reconciliation – these are the words of peace, in beloved Syria, in the Middle East, in all the world! Let us pray for reconciliation and peace, let us work for reconciliation and peace, and let us all become, in every place, men and women of reconciliation and peace! Amen”.
Following the Pope's words, a moment of silence was observed during the preparation of the altar for the exposition of the Holy Sacrament. The adoration was accompanied by a biblical reading on the theme of peace, followed by the Pope's prayer on this subject and a responsorial invocation as a plea for peace. At the end of each of those moments, five pairs of people, representing Syria, Egypt, the Holy Land, the United States and Russia, placed incense in the censer to the right of the altar. This offering was accompanied by a series of invocations on the common theme of peace, including: “Lord of life, bring to us your peace, to where the fate of nations is decided” and “Stop, with your creative power, all violence against human life”.
The adoration was followed by the reading - “in the longest form planned for the celebration of a vigil” - of the Gospel of St. John. Then, from around 10.15 to 10.40 p.m., there was a long period of silence for personal prayer.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, Pope Francis imparted his Eucharistic blessing to those present. Today, the Pope wrote to his nine million followers on Twitter, “Pray for peace”.
I understand why he made the statement he did, but I agree there might be a time or two that War was a win for humanity.
He'd better NOT!
No. In fact, I cited the New Testament.
The New Testament does not require soldiers to quit their work, nor does it suggest governments cannot arm men to do violence against bad people. In fact, you cannot have a country without the willingness to defend that country, which in turn requires an acceptance of war.
I’ve been in war, as was my Dad (who was killed in his third), and as were my son, oldest daughter, son-in-law and the husbands of both of my nieces. War is not pretty. But war is vastly better than living under Islam, as expressed by the muslims in Afghanistan, or Egypt, or other hard-core muslim countries. If I ever had any doubt, my tour in Afghanistan would have cured them. Perhaps the Pope would like to go preach in the towns of Afghanistan.
And perhaps the Pope ought to look at the Swiss Guard...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Guard#Pontifical_Swiss_Guard
“The only people that benefit from war is the Military/Industrial Complex war profiteers.”
Nope. I benefit, every day, as do you.
What recent wars do you think we still benefit from?
Every actor who played a main role as a German officer/NCO on that show was Jewish, did you know that? Luftwaffe Colonel Klink, Major (actually Sturmbannführer und Kriminalrat) Hochstetter, Wehrmacht General der Infantrie Burkhalter and Sergeant of the Guard Schultz were all portrayed by Jewish men. Weird, huh?
“Regardless, there is a painfully obvious sense in which war, regardless of its justifiability, always represents a loss for humanity. Does this really require explanation?”
Only in the sense that cutting out a cancer results in a loss to the body.
He will send a signal to distant nations far away
and whistle to those at the ends of the earth.
They will come racing toward Jerusalem.
They will not get tired or stumble.
They will not stop for rest or sleep.
Not a belt will be loose,
not a sandal strap broken.
Their arrows will be sharp
and their bows ready for battle.
Sparks will fly from their horses’ hooves,
and the wheels of their chariots will spin like a whirlwind.
They will roar like lions,
like the strongest of lions.
Growling, they will pounce on their victims and carry them off,
and no one will be there to rescue them.
They will roar over their victims on that day of destruction
like the roaring of the sea.
If someone looks across the land,
only darkness and distress will be seen;
even the light will be darkened by clouds.
LOL!
Robert Clary was also a Holocaust survivor who was liberated from Buchenwald.
Hard to believe that Leon Askin (General Burkhalter) made it to 98.
Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, WW2. And don’t forget the Cold War, which took a lot of effort and sometimes went hot.
Iraq was hugely worth it. We killed terrorists by the tens of thousands there so we could be safe here - and it worked.
The majority of the 9/11 attackers were Saudis, not Iraqis. They got their funding from Saudi Arabia, not Iraq.
I know. That has nothing to do with the effectiveness of our war in Iraq, where we killed a lot of Saudi extremists. We also had been in a state of unresolved war with Iraq for years. I spent much of the 90s flying over Iraq, and was shot at many times.
Killing extremists in the ME beats waiting for the cops to try to deal with them one by one in the USA.
The jury is still out as to whether or not life for people in Iraq will be any better than before.....I doubt the Christians there are much better off.
I still say Iran was the big winner in the end.
The actors who played the four major German roles—Werner Klemperer (Klink),[16] John Banner (Schultz), Leon Askin (Burkhalter), and Howard Caine (Hochstetter)—were Jewish. Furthermore, Klemperer, Banner, Askin, and Robert Clary (LeBeau) were Jews who had fled the Nazis during World War II. Clary says in the recorded commentary on the DVD version of episode “Art for Hogan’s Sake” that he spent three years in a concentration camp, that his parents and other family members were killed there, and that he has an identity tattoo from the camp on his arm (”A-5714”). Likewise John Banner had been held in a (pre-war) concentration camp and his family was killed during the war. Leon Askin was also in a pre-war French internment camp and his parents were killed at Treblinka. Howard Caine (Hochstetter), who was also Jewish (his birth name was Cohen), was American, and Jewish actors Harold Gould and Harold J. Stone played German generals.
As a teenager, Werner Klemperer (Klink) (son of the conductor Otto Klemperer) fled Hitler’s Germany with his family in 1933. During the show’s production, he insisted that Hogan always win over his Nazi captors or else he would not take the part of Klink. He defended his playing a Luftwaffe Officer by claiming, “I am an actor. If I can play Richard III, I can play a Nazi.” Banner attempted to sum up the paradox of his role by saying, “Who can play Nazis better than us Jews?” Ironically, although Klemperer, Banner, Caine, Gould, and Askin play stereotypical World War II Germans, all had actually served in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II — Banner[17] and Askin in the U.S. Army Air Corps, Caine in the U.S. Navy, Gould with the U.S. Army, and Klemperer in a U.S. Army Entertainment Unit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogan’s_Heroes
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.
I am not questioning self defense. I asked you to show me where our Lord preaches this. Can you cite a tract from Matthew, Mark, Luke or John? In response to the question about the first of the commandments, Jesus says: "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." I am no peacenik but I can't find anything in the gospels where our Lord justifies killing others.
But war is vastly better than living under Islam, as expressed by the muslims in Afghanistan, or Egypt, or other hard-core muslim countries.
Christians and Muslims have peacefully co-existed in countries like Lebanon and Egypt, for centuries. The problems are created by outsiders. That seems to be the case since the US intervened to remove benevolent dictators. In so doing, a more rabid element, like the Muslim Brotherhood,, moved in to take power. IMO, Obama is a shill in Syria, performing the same task.
Perhaps the Pope would like to go preach in the towns of Afghanistan.
Last September, Pope Benedict visited Lebanon. Even the Muslims came out to greet him.
winning a war you didn’t start, is.
I did not read the complete article, but any Pope commenting on War always makes me think of
Pope Pius XII, born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli
who made so little effort to stop the rise of Fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany. Taking a Neutral position on the war, in effect say both sides were in the wrong.
“I am no peacenik but I can’t find anything in the gospels where our Lord justifies killing others.”
So now you’ve thrown out both the Old Testament, and the non-Gospel New Testament. And I thought Catholics accused Protestants of having too small a Bible!
Governments act to defend their people. That is why we have cops - to defend those citizens who cannot defend themselves. That is why we have the military - to defend us from forces no individual can protect themselves from.
And contrary to what your Pope says, wars often do bring peace. Peace thru strength, backed by the will to use force if need be. Europe has known peace since WW2 as a result of war. South Korea has had peace & freedom because of war. We have greatly minimized terrorist attacks in the US by killing large numbers overseas.
“I asked you to show me where our Lord preaches this.”
And I cited God’s Word. It is a pity you think God’s word is limited to the red print in some New Testaments...and give more weight to Pope Francis than the Apostle Paul.
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